Abstract
Already during my student days Öttingen had made me aware of the term energy. He’d taken a great interest in the first exciting developments of thermodynamics when as a young man at an impressionable age he’d taken his first steps as a scientific journeyman in Berlin.
Ostwald’s first papers on Energetics were: Ostwald W (1891) Berichte über die Verhandlungen der Sächsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig. 43:271‒288. Reprinted in Z Phys Chem (Leipzig) (1892) 9:563‒578; and Ostwald W (1892) Berichte über die Verhandlungen der Sächsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig. 44:211‒237. Reprinted in Z Phys Chem (Leipzig) (1892) 10:363‒386. For a detailed commentary on Ostwald’s concept of energetics see: Deltete RJ (2010) Thermodynamics in Wilhelm Ostwald’s Physical Chemistry. Phil Sc 77:888–899; Deltete RJ (2007) Wilhelm Ostwald’s Energetics 1: Origins and Motivations. Found Chem 9:3–56; Deltete RJ (2007) Wilhelm Ostwald’s energetics 2: energetic theory and applications, part I. Found Chem 9: 265–316; Deltete RJ (2008) Wilhelm Ostwald’s energetics 3: energetic theory and applications, part II. Found Chem 10:187–221.
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Notes
- 1.
Ostwald uses the phrase ‘effusion of the Holy Spirit’ a metaphor used in German for Pentecost.
- 2.
This is incorrect: Budde worked as a journalist for a German newspaper in Constantinopel where he married the daughter of the German consul Reiser.
- 3.
Meyer R (1917) Viktor Meyer: Leben und Wirken eines deutschen Chemikers und Naturforschers 1848–1897. Leipzig, Akad Verlagsgesell (In the series “Große Männer: Studien zur Biologie des Genies W. Ostwald ed, p. 294).
- 4.
Most probably Ostwald refers to: Planck M (1887) Das Prinzip der Erhaltung der Energie. Leipzig, Teubner.
- 5.
64th Assembly of German Natural Scientists and Physicians, Halle/Saale, 21–25 September 1891.
- 6.
Ostwald writes “atomistisch eingeteilt”.
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Jack, R.S., Scholz, F. (2017). Energetics. In: Jack, R., Scholz, F. (eds) Wilhelm Ostwald. Springer Biographies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46955-3_21
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